No nose holding required for THIS life long Democrat. Our "two party system" is not a system, is not mandated or even suggested in our constitution, was advised against by our first president who personally instituted the most important feature of our democracy. That feature? The regular and peaceful transfer of political power. Washington established that crucial tradition/value by serving two terms and then retiring from politics. He knew that power eventually corrupts and that without regular turnover in our highest office corruption would eventually win out over public service.

Americans immediately ignored Washington's warnings about "factions and parties", and for a very logical reason; our most seminal argument, the Jeffersonian strong state and weak central government vs. the Madisonian strong central government, divided us then and still divides us today. We have added many features to that argument, women's rights vs. religious values/social traditions, social safety nets vs. every person for themselves, environmental regulation vs. market forces to decide corporate behavior, voting rights vs. voter suppression...I hope you are seeing a trend here. Those values and many others closely follow the Dem/Rep party split and I have no problem deciding which side I am on.

A last point; Joe Biden is neither a douche nor a turd. He will fight for individual rights the way he fought for LBGTQ rights in the Obama admin. He will fight for a real assault on climate change, a strengthening of Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security, an end to trickle down economics and our vast wealth divide. He will need progressives to back him, push him to promote progressive action, he can't as president ignore the large plurality of citizens who disagree with progressive values. He needs, we all need for those on our side of the divide to show up in 2022, the way we didn't in 2010.